What is the criteria for this list?
Looks like a lot of them are still registered but perhaps on marketplaces?
When I hear "expiring" I believe they are in pending delete.
Fair question, thanks for asking.
The list shows names that have expired and are scheduled to be deleted on the date shown. Most are past grace and redemption and sitting in pending delete. A few are still earlier in the cycle when they first show up.
Why some still look registered:
• Until the actual delete, the old registrar can still renew it, or sell it in its own expired auction (GoDaddy, Dynadot, NameJet etc.). Whois keeps showing it as registered during that time, sometimes with a marketplace lander.
• After the drop we re-check every name. Anything that got renewed or caught is marked "Caught" and filtered out. Anything nobody picked up moves to the "free to register now" list.
So "expiring" here means "due to delete on this date", not "guaranteed to drop". A fair share never make it to deletion, which is normal for any drop list.
The posts only include DR 20+ (Ahrefs) and skip obvious spam/gambling names. The full list on the site has all of them with DA, TF, referring domains and archive counts.
If you want to check a single name, the expiration lookup on the site reads the live RDAP status (active / grace / redemption / pending delete) and the expected drop date.
Thanks for sharing but some of the backorder houses charge upfront if I'm not mistaken, correct please. Thanks.
You're right, it depends on the service. Some charge upfront when you place the backorder (GoDaddy's, for example), so you pay whether they catch the name or not. Others like DropCatch and NameJet are free to place and only charge if they actually get the domain.
The backorder button on our list goes to a free-to-place one: no charge unless the name is caught. If more than one person backordered the same name, it goes to a short auction among them first.
Either way, it's worth checking each service's terms before you place one, since fees and refund rules differ.
How or where do you sells these types of domains e.g special marketplaces or forums?
It depends on what the domain is worth for.
• Good brandable or keyword name: the usual marketplaces, so Afternic and Sedo (listing there also gets it onto many registrar search pages), plus the marketplace sections here and on NamePros.
• Name worth it mainly for its backlinks: the buyers are mostly SEOs and agencies. They tend to buy on SEO domain marketplaces such as ODYS, on Flippa, in the SEO forums' marketplace sections, or straight from sellers they already know. Showing DR, referring domains and a clean Wayback history in the listing makes a big difference there.
• Direct outreach: emailing businesses in the same niche, or companies that used to link to the old site, works surprisingly often for niche names.
One tip: check the archive history and anchor texts before you buy or list. A name with a spammy past or a pharma/gambling history is hard to sell to anyone serious, whatever its DR.
Closeouts with DR 20+ – fixed price, no bidding:
Expired domain auctions with DR 20+:
